the yucca next to the stone wall, still recuperating from the woodchuck
You can see the smaller yucca shoot peeking out from behind the original yucca. That is how they multiply, through shoots
I like the view of the stone wall in this photo
When my hubby and I purchased our house in 1995, there was an established garden that had iris and what I later learned, was a yucca plant, it was a very small garden and over by the stone wall there was the other yucca plant. The previous owners were getting on in years, so the garden was simple and pretty. Over the years, I have done much to expand the side garden and create other small pockets of flowers and some larger gardens as well. But in all these years, I have never tried to move or get rid of the two yuccas, I just liked their elegance and desert-like appearance, they made me think of places like Arizona and New Mexico. It was early spring of last year that I had a yucca scare, my two yuccas had been ravaged completely by the woodchuck bandit of Blandford. There were stories about the Blandford woodchuck, every gardener of Blandford knew of him and called him the bane of gardeners everywhere. I am really not joking, Blandford gardeners do not fool around. Needless to say that I was upset and I was telling the ladies at weight class all about the horrible attack on my yuccas and our Master Gardener told me not to worry, yuccas are surprisingly hardy. I thought that she might be wrong, because the yucca had been eaten down to nothing, so I decided to do something positive and I bought two trays of Bee Balm and planted them in the yucca’s place in the side garden. I am not kidding when I say that the following year not only did I have a lovely crop of Bee Balm but both yucca’s came back in spades. I was happy and amazed at how resilient the yucca actually was, especially in the mountain climate of western Massachusetts. Today as I was reading more about the yucca, I found out that in the U.K., they are now using yuccas as ornamental plants for a change of pace. I was surprised just because I was always under the impression that exporting plants was never a good idea because you may often end up with unforeseen results. I suppose that given my experiences with the yuccas, there shouldn’t be any harm in planting them in the U.K, yuccas don’t seem to be the type of plant to invade, the only danger with yuccas is the sharpness of their leaves in some varieties, mine aren’t bad, but there are some that can cut very badly. They also have a symbiotic relationship with the yucca moth that is responsible for pollinating the yucca plants and from what I have read the yucca moth doesn’t pose any threat either so that is good news for those across the pond who would like to plant yuccas in their gardens.
This is the yucca in the side garden flowering, which I think is so pretty
Here is the larger view of the flowering yucca surrounded by the purple and red Bee Balm
laurieanichols 